Once again we are nearing the month of February- Black History Month.

Ms. Chin is organizing something new this year. This time around, it seems the celebration is going to be a lot larger in scale than it was last year. “We are planning a building-wide showcase,” she said. QPA students are hard at work preparing for this event. Queens Prep senior Samantha Sanchez confirmed that the student body leadership group ‘Brotherhood’ will be performing. “We’re planning something…” she said rather vaguely. “We rehearse every morning before school and every evening after school is over.”

Additionally, the student artists of QPA are working in Mr. Akaloo’s room on their African  mask project in preparation for  the celebration. According to Mr. Akaloo, “It’s about self awareness, roots, building self-confidence, knowing our strengths, talents and direction.” He said, “The work will be exhibited on the walls of our third floor hallway.”

Black History month is always celebrated by following specific themes. Last year’s theme was ‘Black resistance’ while the theme for this year is ‘African Americans and the arts.’ As to how the arts are to be incorporated, Ms. Chin said, “Incorporation begins with the students.” She continued by pointing out, “The showcase relies heavily on student resources and the staff, whose biggest roles are to gather people who can properly showcase these arts.”

So far, the preparation seems to be going along smoothly and everyone seems to be in high spirits. A statement from Ms. Chin revealed her feelings. “Right now we’re gathering student reps,” she said.  “We have reps from every school who we meet with weekly, and it’s going to be exciting to see what our students brings to the showcase.”

With all this preparation and high spirits everyone seems to exude, we can only watch and see the resulting event, and hope that it’s even more entertaining than last year’s.